My Tech Transition: How Oluwatofunmi Alo went from PR Intern to Content Marketing Manager
Oluwatofunmi Alo started her professional journey as a public relations intern and is currently the content marketing manager at Verto. She tells us how she successfully made her transition into tech.
My Tech Transition is a monthly ConTech series that shines a spotlight on Africans who have successfully transitioned into tech.
Written by David Onugha.
Oluwatofunmi Alo has a rich and varied career trajectory. She started her professional journey as a public relations intern and has worked across a wide range of industries, spanning finance, media, and marketing. Currently the content marketing manager at Verto, she tells us how she successfully made her transition into tech.
What is your current tech role and how long have you been in it?
I’m currently the Content Marketing Manager at Verto, and I've been here since December last year.
Can you walk us through your tech transition journey?
I have a marketing background. In uni, I studied mass communication, and my major was in public relations and advertising. Naturally, after school, I decided to work in public relations and I interned with a PR company called The Oddlot Company. From there, I moved to a marketing agency called Surkreo Communications. So, I was a PR/marketing agency girlie before I moved into tech. Before I moved to tech, I had worked in media and traditional finance companies. I also managed clients in food, fashion, and non-profit. Essentially, I moved into tech because I wanted to have a very diverse experience. Switching from working in a traditional industry to a tech role wasn't too hard because my skills and experience were relevant. It was very easy for me to transfer those skills.
In what way does tech stand out for you considering your diverse working experience?
Aside from the fact that tech is very innovative and fast-paced, there's less red tape and less bureaucracy when it comes to developing campaigns and launching things. I would say that the flexibility that tech provides me to work remotely is also something I'm grateful for.
Another thing is, as you can probably tell from my experience, I've worked in different sub-sectors even within tech. I've worked in software as a Service, proptech, web3, and now I currently work in FinTech. That is another advantage I think tech has provided me against working for traditional companies. When I was working with traditional companies, they laid emphasis on domain experience. In tech, however, while there is some emphasis on having domain experience, it's not a hard and fast rule. Tech allows me to be able to live and also work in a way that is balanced. I've been able to transfer my relevant skills and put them to good use.
How did you navigate picking up the skills needed to excel in your different roles in the tech industry?
Two things I will say. One, I'm a sponge. I am very adaptable and I can easily absorb years of knowledge required to excel in a particular role. In each of these roles that I have held, there was a probation period where you had to learn about the company and the industry. It is a time to just read, and immerse yourself in the knowledge base for whatever sector that you're working in. Being able to put my head down, study my industry, and learn all that I need to succeed in the role is one thing that I will say has been very helpful to me.
The second thing is I'm very open to learning, I read a lot. In every company I’ve worked in, I'm always friends with the engineering and the product teams. I ask them for demos of the products, I'm on the test environment myself and learn about the product. I think this has also made me very successful, working from sector to sector. Knowing a lot about the products, testing them, and seeing how best to communicate the benefits and features of the products. I’m also very adaptable and keep an open mind about the products and things I have to do to communicate the benefits of the product. I don't believe in putting myself in a box or saying “oh, I can only work in this sector because I've only worked in this sector so far.” I think, put me anywhere on God's green earth and I would adapt and learn what I need to do. I will test out the products and I will still be able to produce high-quality content to sell out the product.
Did you have to follow any formal learning path as you progressed in your career? How did you apply the learnings to work?
I did have learning paths. I did some courses, but none of them were industry-centric, they were more industry-agnostic. It was more because I wanted to improve my skills. When I started as a content marketing manager, I started from writing - doing the creative bits of it and then, I had to manage both the creative and the analytical numbers part of it. The courses that I took were to learn data analytics, how to track and report metrics, how to run Google ads, and bid for ad spaces. I didn't have a learning or certification path; I would just go online, read articles and Reddit threads, watch YouTube videos, and follow thought leaders on Twitter and other social media platforms. It was mostly because I wanted to improve my skills, and not necessarily about the particular sector that I found myself in.
Can you share any challenges you faced in your tech transition and how you were able to surmount them?
I started my career in PR. So, I came from a background where you’re mostly writing stuff and I now had to handle analytics, figures, budgets, and metrics. It was a bit daunting at first because I really hate math, but I had to do it. So for me, that was a major challenge. I had to learn how to love math and record metrics. There was also the performance marketing side of things. All my life, I had been the content writing girl, the creative girl doing creative strategy and executing creatively. And now, I was faced with a role where I had to do performance marketing as well. That includes budget, doing A/B testing, bidding for ad space on auction platforms, and being able to justify this spend to stakeholders. I also had to calculate ROI, cost of acquisition, and things like that. Again, I hated math but that was something I had to do if I wanted to move to the next level in my career. I had to go on a learning path on how to do these things. There was even one time I enlisted the help of a friend for about a month, and all we were learning was data visualisation, how to do Excel formulas, and how to record and present data. These were things I never thought I would do - I said I was always going to be the creative strategy girl. I had to learn how to effectively utilise marketing budgets for great ROI. I would say that's one that's been one of the biggest challenges in my career so far.
What advice would you give to anyone looking to move from a creative role to one in tech?
I would say look into the roles you are trying to get in. There are usually one or more skills that are rare to find. For example, as a content marketing manager, I usually find most people gravitating toward the creative side of things, and there are only a few performance or growth marketers who are good at their jobs, and really know how to crunch numbers. For anyone who wants to move from a traditional role in marketing to a role in tech, I would say go for the rare skills that you don't find everywhere. So, performance marketing, actual growth marketing, growth loops, retention loops, and things like that. If you're working in traditional sales and want to move to tech, look into sales engineering - selling really technical software products. You need to look for the rare skills that not a lot of people have and that’s how you stand out. If you're a content writer in a traditional industry, focus on improving your skills for SEO, organic search, lead gen, and things like that. That's my forever advice honestly, for anyone who wants to move into tech.
What job search hacks would you recommend to anyone looking to make a tech transition?
The market isn’t very friendly right now for tech jobs, to be honest, but there are things that you can do to get you one step closer. Things like optimising your LinkedIn and being visible there, tailoring your resume, just all the traditional advice. I know it all seems like it’s been said over and over again but these really do work especially in a market that isn’t very friendly. Big tech is laying off so you’re in the same job market with people who have big tech experience and recruiters are going to prioritize them. You can try to give yourself a fighting chance. Also, work on cold-emailing recruiters and finding referrals in the company you would like to work in.
I always tell people to work on projects especially when you don't have the relevant tech experience. What you can do is work on a part-time project. We have designers who do a design teardown of their favorite brands and put that on their portfolios. Content writers can come up with a content strategy for their brand or company and put it on their portfolio. While you may not have the chance to do the actual work on real products, you can come up with dummy products and just try to put your learnings to use with this product and then put it on your portfolio. So, when a recruiter sees you, you won’t look like a greenhorn who doesn't have much experience at all. You may not have relevant, specific tech experience but you can have projects in your portfolio that show the recruiter you know what you're talking about.